HenrivsHenryWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Henri is a name, Henry is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Henri” is a name and “Henry” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,671
“Henri” frequency rank
#3,454
“Henry” frequency rank
15125
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Henri Henry
Definition männlicher Vorname Einheit der Induktivität

Where the eye mixes Henri and Henry

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Henri
5 ch
Henry

Why the eye confuses Henri with Henry

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Henri is [ɑ̃ˑ.ri] while Henry is [ˈhɛnʁi]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “Henri” becomes y in “Henry”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Henri is recorded at frequency rank #11,671, classified as aname, pronounced [ɑ̃ˑ.ri]. Henry is at rank #3,454, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɛnʁi].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 15125, this pair ranks #1,946,201 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Henri vs Henry

Shared letters: ehnr. Private to "Henri": i. Private to "Henry": y.

"Henri" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Henry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Henriehnri · henir · hennri · henrri · herni · hhenri · hneri
  • Henryehnry · hennry · henrry · henryy · henyr · herny · hhenry · hnery

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Henri" for "Henry" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Henri" is a name and "Henry" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Henri" or "Henry" show up more?
"Henry" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,454 in our German list, against #11,671 for "Henri". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Henri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Henry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,946,201 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Henri" and "Henry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hanoi vs Henri". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,946,201 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list